(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shirt, bodysuit and teddy, and the blank and methods for making the same. More particularly, this invention relates to the production of a shirt or bodysuit blank on a circular knitting machine, and the production of a shirt or bodysuit from the blank having seams only at the shoulders and crotch, where applicable. Even more specifically, the invention relates to the production of a shirt, bodysuit or teddy having integrally knit compression areas to shape a wearer's body, and the blank and methods for making the same.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Brassieres having fabric areas to define breast cups have been produced by full fashioned and reciprocating knitting machines, but blank and brassiere production tends to be slow and inefficient unless circular knitting is used. One circular knitting process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,525 to Richards, wherein a brassiere blank is made on a circular knitting machine. The process includes producing a cylindrical tubular blank having a torso portion with a pair of breast cups, straps knit integrally with the torso portion, and turned welt portions at each end of the cylindrical blank. The tubular blank is slit on one side and laid flat for cutting neck and arm openings and seaming at each side to form the brassiere.
Attempts have been made on certain nether-type knitted undergarments to provide variations in the compression provided by the undergarment in areas corresponding to particular areas of a wearer's body. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,999 to Lawson et al. describes the provision of a fabric portion having a medium amount of compressive force between a highly compressive upper waist or leg portion and a low compression body portion, in order to ease the transition from the highly compressive portion to the low compression portion and reduce the resultant body bulge which can be caused by that transition. The areas providing the medium amount of compressive force are shaped and located so that they extend circumferentially about the waist or leg of the wearer in the manner of a band, and they are formed by changing the yarn used to knit various courses.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,824 to Kuney discloses knitted undergarments which include form-fitting pockets in order that they can accentuate specific portions of the body. The garments are knitted using a constant stitch structure, with the stitch length being varied in selected areas to form spaced concave areas which are designed to correspond to specific regions of the wearer's body. In the illustrated embodiments, the nether garments include loosely knit regions corresponding to the buttock cheeks and a tightly knit seam piece extending vertically between the loosely knit regions. Though mentioning broadly that the structure could be used with brassieres, the Kuney patent does not disclose how the structure can be incorporated into such a brassiere.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,246 to Knohl discloses a knitted brassiere having extra courses of elastic yarn knitted into the breast cups to shape the cups by providing fullness therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,854 to Lonati describes a one-piece body garment which is knit on a circular knitting machine. An elastic thread or threads can be inserted in the waistband portion to form an elastic band at the waistband. These garments can tend to lack sufficient breast support for women, and fail to provide means for enhancing the appearance of the wearer's body.
Blanks for the production of knitted shirts are conventionally knit in flat or tubular form. The blanks are then cut to form arm openings and a neck opening, seamed along the side if necessary, and the bottom of the shirt is hemmed. To complete the shirt, a separately manufactured neckband is then sewn to a neck opening of the T-shirt, usually with a double row of stitching, and the arm openings are then finished, usually either by hemming or attaching banding, to thereby form a finished shirt. Because all of these seaming processes require the input of labor, each seaming step increases the manufacturing costs of the shirt.
Thus, a need exists for a method of making shirts which requires a minimal amount of seaming to provide an efficiently and rapidly producible garment, and blanks and shirts requiring only a minimal number of seams. In addition, a need exists for a shirt, bodysuit, and teddy construction which can provide shaping support for a wearer's body and can accommodate the curves of various wearer's bodies, and which can be rapidly and easily produced using only a minimal number of manufacturing steps and labor input.